One breath.
Our personal and collective grief.
How shall we feel in moments that erupt with every feeling?
Or when one emotion overtakes all the others with its singular strength?
What shall we do?
When we feel we've done it all before,
When we want to hope but hope feels far away.
What shall we say?
In moments that reveal the unspeakable.
Moments where words become moot but silence is deafeningly loud.
In grief we say,
Don't get too close to me,
You don't understand.
In the same grief we say,
Please be by my side so I know I'm not alone.
Some of us want to move on or be beyond what's happening and we feel stunted or wrong for being sideswiped by anger or fear or shame or guilt or an unfathomable deep pit of wariness.
But this is the nature of grief.
It is not unusual to be at a loss when something or someone or everything feels lost.
Don't turn your face from what is calling your name.
For to be gleeful in a time of pronounced and shared pain reveals either denial or ignorance of these deep waters.
Dear one,
Let yourself feel every true feeling.
Let yourself wail or shake your head with all the unshed tears,
Tears that are tired of falling.
Let yourself be free to be all that you are and do not apologize for what moves you within the core of your soul.
At times it may feel like everyone could be our enemy,
Even our own minds or our own hearts who cannot forget or unknow what they have seen.
We are sorrowful together as we fall to our knees,
But we stand up together too.
Some of us can find footing and dare to share our rage or our mourning.
Others falter to find words or deeds that match the moment and we sink into learning and watching,
Biding our time.
Both have their wisdom.
Our words can carry change while our silence carries depth.
We can make space for both the sharing and for the quietude.
In truly listening to our hearts and to the hearts of others,
We know better how to relay our message and what that message even is.
For in times that pull the rug out from under all of us,
We are summoned to rise.
We must face what is no longer serving us.
Our cries illuminate what is unacceptable and beckon our attention toward what wants to be birthed in its place.
Birth itself knows it is not easy,
Nor is it glamorous nor painless.
When we take our first breath,
This elicits an earth-shattering scream.
We are all connected as a collective when something we are birthing together sets the world awake.
Our vivarious voices may sound cacophonous,
But there's a melody of truth that rings underneath our differences.
We want to be known and heard and for the pain to stop.
There are no words of comfort when we are so disquieted,
But maybe this breath can bring you home,
Even though it cannot assuage the grief in your heart.
Shall we breathe with and through this grief together and not seek distractions nor easy answers?
In this breath,
Can we let healing happen?
Can we stand in our own pain,
Both personal and collective,
And not run to hide it or bury it,
But let it burn like fuel for a new day?
The truth has all tones and shapes and shades.
Can you hold them all?
What is the truth you already know,
Dear one,
About this moment?
Connect with your depth and your passion,
Your courage and your compassion.
Keep the fire burning so that this moment turns into part of the movement.
Because we are moving,
We move as life and as the living.
We move with life and with the living.
And so today let's vow to honor the gift of each one's breath.
ParfitchDavid.
Com
